Check up 27th January 2012
Off out around the park, one other jogger one man two dog walkers, commuters. There is a nip in the air. Mary said there was sleet as well. I hope the daffs survive.
The papers say that there is less activity at the bird table now that there is so much more natural food available. Well if that is so our lot certainly haven’t heard of it. There is an eager throng waiting for Mary when she goes out. If she is the slightest bit late then we get a dejected blackbird or robin hopping up and down, looking pathetic to urge her on.
Off out I go to drop Mary off at Joans. I go off shopping at Tesco. I get some plums to make some more wine with. Then back to pick up Mary. Apparently I have just missed Paula, the checker for the care home who paid a brief visit to see if everything is going all right. Joan has been telling some stories, but on the other hand you never know with Joan. Mary does her best to fill in the gaps in their information.
Fish and chips we watch Oh Mr Porter, dear old Will Hay, in charge of an Irish railway station, with a gun smuggler no less. The scene where they escape down the blades of an windmill is wonderful, as well as the high speed train journey, Priceless.
Scrabble today I win but not but not by much, one of those annoying games where I get all the vowels and Mary gets all the consonants, and we are both stuck, but I am sure Mary will get a suitable revenge.
Fave Letters:
I’m a museum curator who spends a lot of time mollocking around in vast stores. Given the conditions – heavy objects, 13ft-high shelves, I find it’s a good thing not to be wearing pretty items of clothing that flap about. Jeans usually fit the bill and can be chosen to look moderately smart in office situations (Letters, 27 January). Given also that age (55) is causing me to lose my nerve in the wobbling-on-13ft-high-ladder stakes, I would love to be a lumberjack, because then I might be OK.
Helen Rees
Southampton
• In the village where I live, with its broad dairy farming hinterland, jeans are the dress of choice for all ages and both sexes. And usually tucked inside green wellies. It works on every level.
Nick Nolan
Ballylanders, Co Limerick
Victims of drone strikes
According to my information, based on spending the last four years in Pakistan near the Afghan border, Pakistani Taliban chief Hakimullah Mehsud has now been killed three times by US drones (report, 16 January). The point of such announcements has little to do with whether or not the Taliban chief is alive or dead; it is to convince the general public that US drones kill enemies rather than civilians. They kill on average 50 civilians inside Pakistan’s borders for every alleged militant.
David L Gosling
(Former Principal, Edwardes College, Peshawar) Cambridge
SIR – As a student pilot, I endeavoured to impress my flying instructor with my recently and very sketchily acquired knowledge of the principles of flight.
“Forget that guff, lad,” I was told. “Just remember,” he advised, “pull back and the houses get smaller; push forward and the houses get bigger.”
Many years and flying hours later, I continue to put my faith in his words.
Patrick Thomas
Over Wallop, Hampshire
Obituary:
Frances MacKeith died peacefully at home in Winchester on 14 December 2011 aged 97. Her long life encompassed over half acentury of campaigning for peace. She had the gift of friendship with all age groups. She was brilliantly well-read, a doyenne of crosswords, an enthusiastic player of the violin and viola, a great walker and naturalist, the creator of a beautiful wild meadow, the befriender of many a refugee and traveller from overseas. She was entirely without vanity and had no malice in her heart. In personal matters she might follow the Quaker guideline “In case of emergency remain silent”, but in public matters she was a fearless, determined and outspoken advocate for peace and internationalism.
Frances Millais Culpin (“Jo” to family and old friends) was born in Young, New South Wales on 28 March 1914. Her medical parents had married while working in Shanghai and were enjoying an extended year-long honeymoon visiting Australia. This link with Australia was to remain strong and she spent four years there during the Second World War when sent there to be safe from the London bombing as the young mother of two children.
She travelled extensively in Europe with her parents and in 1931 had attended a Munich rally held for Hitler at which she and her mother appeared to be the only non-Nazis present. She was proud of her degree in German at University College, London, graduating in 1936, and went to Germany as part of her education, spending time at Tübingen and Heidelberg Universities. Close friendships there and her love of the German language and literature remained with her throughout her life.
Through her father Millais Culpin, a distinguished psychologist and early psychotherapist, Jo met Stephen MacKeith, a young psychiatrist, and they married in 1938. They enjoyed a rare and enduring marriage until Stephen’s death in 1995. Together they raised six children. Although her life was for many years taken up with her family, and teaching “A” level German at a girls’ school in Croydon, her political activism burgeoned with the Aldermaston March in the 1950s and demonstrations against the Vietnam War in Grosvenor Square in the ’60s, in both of which she played a full part and encouraged her children to do the same.
Jo joined the Quakers in Winchester, where the local Friends called her “The Peace Woman”, regarding her with both respect and apprehension because of her proactive stance. As an active member of Winchester Peace Group in the 1980s, she supported Greenham women, taking food and firewood chopped by Stephen.
In her eighties, Jo took Nonviolent direct action against Trident, three times at Faslane. In court she drew respect from police and magistrates, one of whom acknowledged her “transparent honesty” when she defended herself with her considerable intellect, integrity and lack of posturing.
Well into her eighties she travelled considerable distances to take part in demonstrations against nuclear and conventional weapons, and at Aldermaston a 90th birthday party was thrown for her.
She taught prisoners at Winchester Prison and, unfazed by their swearing, was amused to overhear them deciding that she should have the unchipped mug. When imprisoned herself for an afternoon for demonstrating against the Iraq War, Frances spent the next few hours explaining Quakerism to her cell-mate, a young shoplifter, and putting up Quaker stickers (“Make Peace, not War”). Strengthened by her intellect and quiet authority, and a profound sense of humanity, she was an inspiration to many, not least her own family.
Alice Tomic
Full Text:
Guardian:
Dearest Roy, the massive stroke you died from, aged 84, ended 42 years of unalloyed happiness together. I was five years your junior. Now, after two years, my anger, shock and disbelief have dimmed a little, but underlying grief remains like a debilitating sickness. I am intensely grateful for the charmed life we led together, for your handsome, generous presence and the loving way you taught me the joy of sharing, but I still feel deep resentment that it all had to end so suddenly.
The chance of you recovering to lead a reasonable life were slender – and you would have hated being dependent on others when you cared so much about looking after them. Ironically, you always said to me, “Don’t worry. I’ll always look after you.” So perhaps the sudden but peaceful end after just six weeks in hospital was for the best.
I feel I am living only half a life. A lot of what I do each day seems like a meaningless routine. But small, practical steps can help to hold a life together. I have moments of equilibrium, and then paralysing fear when I consider what lies ahead – a lonely old age with diminishing health and capabilities. How I miss your wise, pragmatic way of dealing with problems, as well as your humour.
When people ask how I am, I say I’m papering over the cracks. Nothing prepares you for the sheer awfulness of bereavement. It is not only the desperate loneliness, missing all our shared joy and laughter, when I attempt to do some of the things on my own that we always did together. There are the poignant reminders of these joint experiences when I do a particular walk or visit a place. I still cannot go into a restaurant and brave the question “Just for one, sir?” My lack of confidence now is devastating. Would pills help? I don’t want to risk that sort of chemical crutch. I must try to be strong.
Yet there are two very important consolations – our wonderful circle of friends, which is largely due to you, your love of people and how they loved you, your kindness and wit, and also my new dog. Both have kept me going, even in the blackest moments.
Real friends, when tragedy strikes, are the ones who watch over you, phone regularly and invite you to enjoy their company. You can talk freely but must respect their feelings and carefully ration your unburdening of woes. If help is offered, I accept it. There are others, straight and gay, who cannot deal with another’s grief.
My retired guide dog is a welcome responsibility and comfort. How you would have loved her, as you did the other dogs we raised together. She is touchingly dependent and, in return, offers unconditional love.
Other than the one-to-one bereavement counselling that helped me face the reality of your death, I wish there were support groups where gay people could meet informally and confidentially, to share problems, perhaps find solutions. I would have benefited from such a group but none seems to exist in Yorkshire.
I try to pace things out rather than cramming a single day too full, in the hope that it will shut out grief or relieve the burden of loneliness. Energy levels fall steeply as I get older.
I am trying to simplify my life by disposing of clothes, books and CDs that are now superfluous. But I want to remain in our home, which meant so much to us both. I live on my wonderful memories. I love looking at the many photographs of our life together. I even wear the few pieces of your clothing that I kept. It brings tears, but they are worth it.
Every day I think of you and what you gave me. Happiness was a man called Roy – and I know I shall never see your like again.
Thank you – for everything. David
Your report (26 January) on the surprising slide towards recession reports a “severe drop in manufacturing and construction output in the runup to Christmas”. Yet no mention of the true cause, which as every sensible economist knows was the complete lack of snow. The reason for this unseasonal phenomenon? I blame the last Labour government.
Neil Cleeveley
Sheffield
• I’m sick of hearing about negative growth. Give us some positive contraction, man.
Bill Hush
Edinburgh
• By his own admission under-fire Spurs boss Harry Redknapp writes like a two-year-old (Report, 27 January). So who writed his weekly Sun column, then? You couldn’t make this stuff up.
Max Bell
Thame, Oxfordshire
• Yes, how dare you, free of charge, give us colourful recipe cards featuring interesting new ingredients (Letters, 26 January)? You cynical bastards.
Stuart Darmon
Coventry
• I don’t mind sport being part of the main paper; I don’t miss the daytime TV listings; but where in your new design is the letter from Fr Alec Mitchell?
Alison Joseph
London
With revelations still emerging from the Leveson inquiry about the cynical behaviour of News International, readers might like to note that the exhibition on the Wapping dispute in 1986-87, when Murdoch sacked the workforce at his newspapers and set out to destroy the print unions, continues at the Bishopsgate Institute, London EC2, until 29 February. The News of the World phone-hacking scandal, which has revealed the dark side of Murdoch’s global empire, should be no surprise when you look at the collusion 25 years ago between the Tory government, the police and NI to promote corporate interests over and above workers’ rights or responsible journalism. With the ejection of the unions, editors and managers were handed unlimited power and ethical reporting went out of the window. I hope Leveson considers the lessons offered by history during his inquiry.
Chris Guiton
Crowborough, East Sussex
This week, with the world’s business, political and economic leaders meeting in Davos, we should not be seeing tens of thousands of people dying of starvation and 13 million at risk of losing everything they have in Kenya, Ethiopia and Somalia, because of a hunger crisis that was predicted and preventable (What we want to discuss at Davos, 25 January). The world is failing people in east Africa and this must change now. While solutions are never easy, it is within our power to stop natural disasters turning into human tragedies of such horror. The crisis in east Africa is a terrible reminder: we have not done enough. Promises have been made by governments and not kept. Plans have been written and quietly sidelined.
There are practical steps that we can and must take to stop catastrophes like this before they start. Steps including investment in services for poor people, improving response to crises, affordable food for all and reducing conflict and violence. The Charter to End Extreme Hunger is a statement that indifference is not good enough, that promises must not be broken, that inaction is fatal and that the solutions are within our grasp. This charter should form a commitment from world leaders gathered in Davos to take us to a future where a crisis like this never happens again. Commit to the charter and we can get to work.
Desmond Tutu Chair of The Elders
Jan Egeland United Nations Emergency Relief Coordinator 2003-2006
Lord Malloch Brown Former minister of state in the foreign and commonwealth office
John Holmes United Nations Emergency Relief Coordinator 2007-2010
Gareth Evans Former Australian foreign minister
Lord Carey of Clifton Former archbishop of Canterbury
Dr Hugo Slim Humanitarian academic
Louise Arbour Former UN high commissioner for human rights
Ross Mountain Director of the UK’s Humanitarian Emergency Response Review
David Miliband MP (Lab)
Iman Somali-American fashion model, actress and entrepreneur
Tom Stoppard British playwright
• Ten years ago one of the most successful global health initiatives in history was launched – the Global Fund to fight Aids, tuberculosis and malaria (Report, 27 January). Through targeted investments the fund is saving more than 100,000 lives every month. Greater progress is on the horizon. During these 10 years, more than 3 million people gained access to Aids treatment, over 9 million people were treated for TB, and 230m insecticide-treated bed nets were distributed to prevent malaria in the developing world. Yet the future of the Global Fund is under threat. It has had to cancel its next funding round, effectively postponing the scale-up of life-saving interventions until 2014 – and just as we are on the verge of major progress, even talking of ending Aids within a generation. This situation can be remedied if governments meet their commitments to the fund. The UK government has shown real leadership in its support for the fund, which it has rated as “very good value for money”. In difficult times, it has continued to support this vital organisation; other governments should do likewise.
Andrew George MP Lib Dem
Jeremy Lefroy MP Conservative
Pamela Nash MP Labour
As a shareholder in RBS (like the rest of us), I would like to see how the CEO’s £1m bonus is justified, given the consequences of his actions on the profitability of the parent company, UK plc (RBS hands chief £1m bonus and fuels political storm, 25 January).
He has made redundant 33,000 members of staff. Suppose half of these stay unemployed for a year (an optimistic estimate) – 16,500 people. Then UK plc foots the bill for their benefits and for the lost tax revenue. Suppose the average salary of those made redundant is £25,000 – with a typical tax loss of £3,400 each. This equals £56m. To which we must add jobseeker’s allowance payments of on average £67 a week for six months and any other possible benefits – maybe an average of another £3,000 a year, which equals another £54m.
So Mr Hester’s actions for the RBS branch of UK plc have cost the parent company about £110m. I propose that his bonus is not awarded and his salary is urgently reviewed.
Huw Kyffin
Canterbury
• Should the prime minister be awarded a bonus in recognition of the unemployment he is creating?
Leslie Gilbert
London
• The current wave of hostility toward the payment of bonuses – most recently expressed in Ed Miliband’s call for RBS chief Stephen Hester to be denied his bonus – is a worrying sign for the UK economy.
Our latest research into accountancy and finance professionals’ expectations for the economy shows 53% believe 2012 will see no deterioration in the UK’s economic position. This remarkably positive collective view is a direct result of a strong performance across the industry in 2011. Unless we get more of the same in 2012, we can forget any prospect of a sustained recovery in the UK.
Seeking to deny people doing a good and important job the rewards for their accomplishments, whether they work for a public-owned company or not, is the most efficient way to drive talent to markets where enjoying the rewards of success is not considered taboo.
Dave Way
Marks Sattin Recruitment
• It is time the government stood up to the bankers and called their bluff. It said it had to give Stephen Hester his bonus because, if it had not, the entire RBS board would have resigned. The response to that should have been: “Do so.” After all, there must be a limit to the number of bankers who can and would wish to emigrate to Geneva, the Cayman Islands or the Channel Islands etc.
Valerie Crews
Beckenham, Kent
• I have three questions which I would like to put to the megabucks-earning bankers, in the unlikely event that any of them ever read the Guardian.
First, is there any limit to the size of pay and bonus package which they would regard as morally acceptable?
Second, do they ever feel any sense of guilt at helping themselves to such a generous share of the national cake, especially when so many of their fellow citizens are poorly paid or out of work?
Third, how can they possibly spend these unimaginably large sums, especially in cases where they’ve been receiving similar amounts for several years?
Simon Green
Hull
• In most jobs, the “reward” for performing well is to keep the job or have one’s contract renewed – and even that is not guaranteed in the current climate. If someone does not do their job properly, sooner or later their employment will be terminated; that alone is supposed to be a sufficient “incentive” to work hard and achieve results. Why can bankers not be given the same terms and conditions of employment that the rest of us enjoy?
Dr Pete Dorey
Bath, Somerset
• Appalled at the RBS ludicrous salaries and bonuses? Then switch to a more ethical bank at once. If we all did that, the message might just possibly get heard and even acted on.
Professor Charles Warlow
Edinburgh
Why doesn’t Mr Chapman debate with a good and satisfied customer of the tobacco companies (Plain packs will make smoking history, 25 January)? Someone who has seen what will replace it as a smoothing, calming contemplative helper. Someone whose friends died of alcohol consumption, not tobacco. Someone who has smoked for nearly as long as he has lived. Someone who knows about the fanatical attitude of haters of tobacco. Someone who is not so naive about advertising and packaging.
Someone who has almost outlived a fanatical anti-smoking father. Someone who is fed up to the teeth with people who think they really know what health is. Someone who is not afraid of the cowardly, crooked politicians who stifle the debate about pleasure in the now. Someone who knows that time is elastic. Someone who knows how easy it is to lie with statistics. Someone who is not a professional agitator, who knows there is no such thing as a professional smoker but knows there are hundreds of dreary, professional, highly paid anti-smokers.
Someone who thinks laughter is good for you as it drains fear from the body. Someone who has something better to do than to try and control the quiet lives of others. Someone who knows we are all a bit different and is fed up with the growing regimentation of people. Someone who knows that smokers can live perfectly average-length lives but heavy drinkers rarely. Someone who is shocked by the growing conformity among people, and what that might mean for a reasonable free society. Someone who prefers the centre of Bohemia to Australian suburbia. Someone who knows we have to die.
David Hockney
Bridlington, East Yorkshire
Independent:
Oh please! Let’s stop the griping over Stephen Hester’s bonus.
We’re asking the man to rescue billions of pounds of our money that, if mismanaged, could disappear down the toilet. A minute fraction of one thousandth of one per cent of our exposure is a small price to pay for it.
John Wells
West Wittering, West Sussex
The current wave of hostility toward the payment of bonuses – most recently expressed in Ed Miliband’s call for RBS chief Stephen Hester to be denied his bonus – is a worrying sign for the UK economy.
Our latest research into accountancy and finance professionals’ expectations for the economy shows 53 per cent believe 2012 will see no deterioration in the UK’s economic position. This remarkably positive collective view is a direct result of a strong performance across the industry in 2011. Unless we get more of the same in 2012, we can forget any prospect of a sustained recovery in the UK.
Seeking to deny people doing a good and important job the rewards for their accomplishments, whether they work for a publicly owned company or not, is the most efficient way to drive talent to markets where enjoying the rewards of success is not considered taboo.
Dave Way
Marks Sattin Recruitment
London WC1
In 2009 the Prime Minister gave a speech on “moral capitalism” in which he said: “Where they work properly, open markets and free enterprise can actually promote morality. Why? Because they create a direct link between contribution and reward; between effort and outcome.” The speech is worth remembering in this 2012 season of City bonuses.
For the avoidance of doubt, there is no direct link in capitalism between narrow individual or company interest and benefits that reward the community at large. Adam Smith taught that all community benefits arise only indirectly. The entrepreneur “intends only his own gain, and he is in this, as in many other cases, led by an invisible hand to promote an end which was no part of his intention”.
So cunning and detached from countries of origin has the modern financial globalisation system become that the invisible hand has been set on its head; rewards can now be extracted without even indirect benefits accruing.
The Conservative-led government provides amiably benign but meaningless rhetoric about Moral Capitalism or the Big Society, or contemplating parting Fred Goodwin from his knighthood, while notably failing adequately to regulate the financial system and City; a City in which complex financial instruments may yet finish off a broken system, and us with it.
John S Warren
Callander, Perthshire
Bishops in the Lords
It’s absolutely correct to say that the bishops should have no place in the upper chamber (leading article, 26 January), but until the Lords is significantly reformed they’re there and to claim that “they have no political mandate” misses the point – being unelected, none of the 800-odd members of the Lords has a political mandate. Thus the bishops have as much – or as little – right as any other peers to seek to influence the political debate.
A much more pertinent question for you to have asked would have been why it required the bishops to submit the amendment on a benefits cap that defeated the Coalition on Monday. I’m old enough to recall when defending the poor was seen as the job of the Labour Party.
Clare Watson
Edinburgh
The existence of bishops in the upper chamber is undemocratic and indeed sectarian. It grants power and privilege to one religious sect while discriminating against all others, and those who profess no religious belief.
Their presence is a throwback to the days when a combination of myth and superstition was force-fed to people as fact, although the present Coalition Government seems to desire a return to such dark times, not least though its education policies.
If we must have a second chamber, it should be populated by those whose experience is informed by evidence, not by belief in the supernatural.
Alistair McBay
Methven, Perth & Kinross
If the issue of how to treat the poor is “absolutely not a spiritual debate” then presumably your leader writer will also seek to ban the singing of the Magnificat: “He has put down the mighty from their seat and the rich he has sent empty away.”
Roy Terry
Croydon, Surrey
Alternatives to Microsoft
Your correspondents (letters, 23 January) are right about the need for information literacy and a wider skills base. They do not mention the huge sums paid to Microsoft by the British taxpayer.
In nearly every case, Microsoft products could be easily replaced with free, open-source software of equivalent functionality. I use LibreOffice, an open-source office suite that is free, produced internationally and increasingly used by local government in Europe. It produces excellent documents, spreadsheets and presentations – and Microsoft-compatible files.
Microsoft has apparently said that the NHS pays £64m a year for software that is worth £270m. If the competing product costs nothing, it becomes arguable whether Microsoft products are worth £270m, £64m … or nothing. These sums would be better-spent on developing in-house skills locally.
And the cost to British business in the middle of a recession? It seems that we are stuck in a mindset where “nobody ever lost their job for choosing Microsoft”. Well, it used to be IBM. Standards can change. With money short, we should consider the alternatives seriously.
Dr Philip Timms
Consultant Psychiatrist, South London & Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust, London SE5
Israel’s appetite for more land
Most of my Jewish friends and acquaintances are liberal Jews who are as keen to see a just and honourable resolution to the Israel/Palestine problem as I am. So it comes as rather a shock to read the uncompromisingly Zionist views of Jonathan Hoffman and Geoffrey Alderman (letters, 19 January).
The majority of visitors to the Holy Land will return home oblivious to what life on the West Bank is really like for Palestinians. They will be fascinated by the various quarters of the Old City of Jerusalem and intrigued to see ultra-Orthodox Jews and traditionally dressed Muslim girls co-existing on the same ancient streets, and may well conclude that all is more or less well. Even those who visit Bethlehem will pass smoothly through the obscene Wall in a tourist bus, delayed for just a few moments as armed soldiers conduct a cursory inspection.
They will not realise that for a Palestinian living in Bethlehem and working in Jerusalem this 20-minute trip has become a three- or even four-hour odyssey. Travellers are corralled for hours on end and herded one by one through a turnstile by armed soldiers. Getting further into the West Bank you realise that all the high ground has been requisitioned by the Israelis. Scores of hilltops boast settlements, often approached by a spanking new road from which Arabs are banned.
Israeli policy has for many years been to delay and obstruct, while all the while building, building, building. Jonathan Hoffman tells us that Israeli presence is lawful until there is a final settlement with the Palestinians – by which time this extraordinary theft of land, carried out under the noses of the international community, will be complete.
Robert Curtis
Birmingham
Richard Cohen (letter, 19 January) mistakenly compares Israel’s illegality in the West Bank with China’s in Tibet. Israel’s existence arises from the UN Partition of 1947, which allowed for a Jewish state and an Arab one. The international community remains intimately responsible for what happens, and the legitimacy of the one state must be contingent on allowing the existence of the other. It is Israel’s relentless appetite for the land awarded to the putative Arab state which now lies at the heart of this conflict.
David McDowall
Richmond, Surrey
Not just my museum
Thank you for the generous double-page spread about the new Design Museum in the Commonwealth Institute (25 January), but I am somewhat embarrassed by the headline, which described it as my Design Museum, which it certainly isn’t.
As the founder, I am obviously excited at its expansion in this wonderful site and thrilled about what we can achieve in the future, but we are a charity run by its trustees.
The site belongs to Chelsfield and the Ilchester estate, who have been generous in giving the Design Museum a very long lease at a peppercorn rent, so it certainly is not my Design Museum. I, along with many trusts and foundations, have contributed financially to make the move to Kensington possible, greatly aided by the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, who have shown real enthusiasm for the project.
Sir Terence Conran
London SE1
In brief…
It’s our United Kingdom too
Brian Connor, writing from Edinburgh, claims that “ordinary folk in Worthing, going about their daily lives, will not be affected one iota by Scotland becoming a sovereign state again” (letter, 22 January). I am sorry but he is wrong.
Unless there is a fair division of the national debt and of the assets and liabilities, people in the remainder of the UK will certainly be affected. There will also be impacts on the value of sterling if Scotland takes the oil revenues and keeps the currency. We need a referendum in the remainder of the UK to make sure that we all agree on the terms negotiated for any split.
Pat Johnston
Hexham, Northumberland
Victims of drone strikes
According to my information, based on spending the last four years in Pakistan near the Afghan border, Pakistani Taliban chief Hakimullah Mehsud has now been killed three times by US drones (report, 16 January). The point of such announcements has little to do with whether or not the Taliban chief is alive or dead; it is to convince the general public that US drones kill enemies rather than civilians. They kill on average 50 civilians inside Pakistan’s borders for every alleged militant.
David L Gosling
(Former Principal, Edwardes College, Peshawar) Cambridge
Lights out
Charles Hendry says smart meters will help keep energy bills down and will ensure that “we keep the lights on” (letter, 27 January). Isn’t the purpose of smart meters to show us that we don’t need to keep the lights on, and should, in fact, be turning them off more often? I suggest that Mr Hendry is not best placed as Energy Minister; he seems to be missing the point.
Lorna Gale
Solihull, West Midlands
What was that?
Lucky John Walsh (Notebook, 26 January) to be surrounded, evidently, by speakers he can already understand, since he assumes elocution is only about sounding posh. Me, I despair daily before the slurred and breakneck gabble of anyone under, say, 30. Elocution, like the effort of legible handwriting, is the courtesy of keeping one’s spoken words fresh and clear to listeners, whatever one’s dialect or class.
Yvonne Ruge
London N20
Telegraph:
SIR – Dr Sarah Pape (Letters, January 25) should know that there is a remedy for muddy boots. One wet afternoon, I stopped to give a lift to a guardsman hitch-hiking from a grass verge that was almost black from the spray of traffic. But when he got in, his boots were spotless.
I assumed that they had been so highly polished that nothing could stick to them.
Richard Shaw
Dunstable, Bedfordshire
SIR – Presumably, Sarah Pape, who was asked to remove her riding boots by a supermarket security guard, does not tether her horse in the car park. Could she not have changed into a clean pair of shoes kept in the boot of her car?
Where I shop, she would be met by notices saying that people with bare feet are not allowed in the store. Then what?
SIR – Alex Salmond, the Scottish First Minister, ought not to be allowed to insist that he is seeking “independence” for Scotland (report, January 26). Scotland is not a dependency. Those who live in Scotland are already citizens of an independent country, the United Kingdom, and they will gain no greater degree of independence from the UK being split up.
It is time that we all recognised that Mr Salmond does not want “independence”, but the separation of one part of the United Kingdom from the rest of it.
Christopher Smith
Canterbury
SIR – Why is everyone asking Alex Salmond about an independent Scotland? If Scotland were to vote for separation, an election would take place immediately to determine the government.
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27 Jan 2012
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27 Jan 2012
We need to know the other parties’ plans should the circumstances arise.
Graham Hough
Ayr
SIR – Benedict Brogan suggests that the Prime Minister should be reticent in his dealings with Alex Salmond (Comment, January 25). I lived in Scotland for almost 10 years. One of my children was born there, many of my colleagues are Scots, as too are my best friends. I found them warm, welcoming and generous.
However, on rare occasions, my wife and I were subjected to anti-English bigotry the like of which we have experienced nowhere else in the world. The Scottish First Minister is pandering to this minority view, which is not representative of this fine, proud nation.
Mr Salmond is no statesman, but that is no reason for reticence. We have heard the views of separatists on both sides of the border, but it is now time for Unionists to be given a voice. This is no time for the Prime Minister to remain silent. If the Union breaks, this particular Englishman’s heart will break, too.
Michael Channon
Wadebridge, Cornwall
SIR – We should all be worried about the removal of the Scottish saltire from the Union flag (Letters, January 23). At a brief count, and including the United Kingdom, 10 countries have the Union flag as part of their national emblem.
I dread the day a bland red and white “Union Jack” flies over Westminster or appears on the white ensigns of the Royal Navy as well as those of the Royal Australian and Royal New Zealand navies.
Lt Col Ewen Southby-Tailyour RM
Ermington, Devon
SIR – My brother used to live in Bearsden, near Glasgow. The nearest station is Milngavie. When I pronounced it as such at the railway station in Glasgow, the ticket vendor failed to understand. I suffered the humiliation of having to write it down.
“Ah,” he sniggered, “you mean Mil’g’uy?”
Well, how was I to know?
Neil McLellan
Birmingham
Controlling drugs
SIR – The resources of police and law enforcement agencies should be directed where they will be most beneficial. But the legalisation of drugs will not be a panacea to the problems currently associated with illicit substances (Letters, January 26). Regulation will produce a black market. Just think how much it costs to police the import and trade of alcohol and tobacco.
How will access be controlled to take narcotics and their users out of the grip of drug dealers? Will control be down to a combination of GPs and pharmacists, or will off-licences be able to supply drugs? Who will get you a dose of heroin if your GP does not see fit to prescribe you any? Have people considered if it is moral for the state to benefit in the form of duties on the sale of dangerous substances?
We should reform laws where necessary, but this must be done in a way that seeks to minimise unintended consequences.
John Ferguson
Ballymena, Co Antrim
SIR – You report (January 25) that dealers of Class A drugs could receive community orders and that the sentencing guidelines issued this week suggest that “courts could get softer on drugs gangs”. But where an offender supplies Class A drugs, the guidelines makes clear that a custodial sentence is always the starting point.
Currently, 75 per cent of those convicted of supplying Class A drugs are jailed immediately, with other sentences used for low-level offenders.
Offending varies widely, so the guidelines ensure effective guidance for those passing the sentences and clear information for the public.
Michelle Crotty
Head of the Office of the Sentencing Council, London SW1
Birdmumble
SIR – I’m surprised that more people didn’t complain about the mumbled diction in the BBC’s adaptation of Birdsong (report, January 26). My wife and I were at such a loss to follow the dialogue that we resorted to turning on the subtitles.
This made for unsatisfactory viewing since a third of the screen was disfigured, and the enjoyment was taken away by trying to read the captions and watch the actors’ facial expressions at the same time.
Similarly, much of Great Expectations, aired last month, was spoilt by poor diction and intrusive music. When will television producers learn that dialogue is there to inform and to be understood?
Tom Linton
Plymouth, Devon
Rejecting honours
SIR – There may be some who reject honours (report, January 26) because they feel that the recommended award is not high enough, while others may be prompted by Left-wing feelings of scorn.
Whatever their motives, rejection usually equates to a coded message, which is not hard to decipher: “I do not consider that an award given to me in person by the head of state on the recommendation of the head of the government is any kind of honour.”
A more blatant form of arrogance is hard to imagine, and is compounded when the person concerned allows the refusal to become known while still living.
Paul Courtenay
Andover, Hampshire
Ageing majestically
SIR – Most people must be aware that the Queen celebrates her Diamond Jubilee on February 6, and that she is the longest-lived monarch in the history of these islands, surpassing Queen Victoria by more than four years.
However, she achieves another milestone this Saturday (January 28) when she becomes the longest-lived British head of state, beating the record currently held by Oliver Cromwell’s son, Richard.
Although Richard Cromwell was Lord Protector for fewer than nine months, he actually lived for 85 years and 282 days, from October 4, 1626 to July 12, 1712.
Roy Bailey
Great Shefford, Berkshire
Micro-megalomaniacs
SIR – I have just received a letter from my local council signed by the “Designated Democratic Services Manager”.
I wonder if they also have an Undemocratic Services Manager for local dictators.
John Raines
Baldock, Hertfordshire
The movement of air over an aeroplane’s wing
SIR – Professor Holger Babinsky’s elegant little video (“How aeroplanes’ wings really work”, telegraph.co.uk) reveals the truth of his claim that textbooks err on the subject of lift created by aeroplane wings.
But the video suggests that the air is flowing around the wing – a result of the practical necessity of using a wind tunnel to study the relative motion of the wing and the air. In fact, the air is not flowing anywhere. It is the wing that is forcing its way through the air. Viewed like this, the video makes even more sense.
E. A. Jones
Bromham, Bedfordshire
SIR – As a student pilot, I endeavoured to impress my flying instructor with my recently and very sketchily acquired knowledge of the principles of flight.
“Forget that guff, lad,” I was told. “Just remember,” he advised, “pull back and the houses get smaller; push forward and the houses get bigger.”
Many years and flying hours later, I continue to put my faith in his words.
Patrick Thomas
Over Wallop, Hampshire
SIR – Aeroplanes, whether upright, on their sides or upside-down, as well as plates, sails, spinning balls and bumblebees can all produce lift, in accordance with Newton’s laws. They accelerate air downwards, but the deflected streamlines cannot be shown in small wind tunnels.
John R. Tippetts
Dore, South Yorkshire
SIR – The “old myth” that bumblebee flight is a mystery of aerodynamics (Leading article, January 24) was exposed years ago.
It was probably based on the early aerodynamic theory of fixed wings. But even the dumbest bumblebee knows how to flap its wings more than 130 times a second.
Len Teff
Syresham, Northamptonshire
Irish Times:
Blame game at Davos
Sir, – Such a shame that all those people “went mad borrowing” and brought the country to its knees (Front page, January 27th). Does anyone know who was kind enough to lend them all the money? Perhaps we need a tribunal to find out. – Yours, etc,
SARAH IRONSIDE,
Rue Bordiau,
Brussels, Belgium.
Sir, – Arising from the Taoiseach’s interview at Davos, I expected your Front page headline to read, “Nation in shock as politician tells the truth”. – Yours, etc,
JOHN MCDWYER,
Summerhill,
Carrick on Shannon,
Co Leitrim.
Sir, – Our Taoiseach has told an audience in Davos how we, the ordinary people, lived it up during the Celtic Tiger. Has he forgotten or was he not aware that in May 2006, the Central Statistics Office stated that 741,000 or about 38 per cent of the workforce were engaged in the low-wage sector of the economy? This figure did not include the black economy. – Yours, etc,
SIMON O’DONNELL,
Church Place,
Rathmines, Dublin 6.
Sir, – Everybody knows that there was far too much irrational borrowing taking place during the Celtic Tiger years, so I fail to see why the Taoiseach should be criticised for referring to “mad borrowing” at the World Economic Forum by the Opposition TDs Niall Collins and Pádraig MacLochlainn (Front page January 27th).
Property development speculation during those years represented a gold-rush mindset akin to the spectacular frenzy for tulip bulbs that took place in the Netherlands in the 1600s; and all citizens now have to bear the brunt of this burst bubble.
I fail to see why the Taoiseach should be criticised for calling it as it is. – Yours, etc,
JOHN KENNEDY,
Knocknashee,
Goatstown,
Dublin 14.
Sir, – Have Troika-invested waters resulted in Enda Kenny developing the memory of a goldfish?
A mere seven weeks since his state of the nation address where the Irish people were told the financial crisis was not their fault, an international audience of economists at Davos are told that Ireland’s problems are a result of “people going mad with borrowing”.
Mr Kenny’s contradictory explanations of Ireland’s financial travails at home and abroad represent a cynical strategy to extol domestic and European audiences in order to maintain popularity on both fronts.
We elect government to govern and regulators are appointed to regulate. Above all else it was the failures of both executive and financial oversight that has resulted in the mess which Ireland now finds itself in. The failure to identify the primary culprits for Ireland’s woes to an international audience at Davos and instead to suggest that the Irish “people” bear a collective equivalent responsibility is a despicable public betrayal of the Irish nation; for shame! In the words of Robert Burns, “Such a parcel of rogues in a nation”. – Yours, etc,
Dr PETER McGUIRK,
Dodderview,
Ballsbridge, Dublin 4.
Sir, – The claim by Fianna Fáil TD John McGuinness that Taoiseach Enda Kenny’s credibility has been damaged following his comments made at the World Economic Forum in Switzerland is laughable. If our country has credibility issues they were created by 14 years of Fianna Fáil- led government. Deputy McGuinness should be reminded that Irish people are not stupid – nor do they have short memories. – Yours, etc,
GEOFF SCARGILL,
Loreto Grange,
Bray, Co Wicklow.
Sir, – The concern about Enda Kenny’s remarks at Davos is the poverty of analysis and thinking that it reveals. No mention of the catastrophic failure internationally of the ideology of market-driven corporate capitalism which unfortunately remains the conventional wisdom. No mention of the failure of politics and regulation, of the professions, of the universities and intellectual engagement, of the media, of a culture of cronyism, dependence and intolerance of challenge.
The problem is that Mr Kenny’s thinking drives Government policy. It appears that the lessons of failure have been ignored. – Yours, etc,
H MC BRIDE,
Derrylea,
Castlebar, Co Mayo.
Sir, – The people who kept voting Bertie Ahern in again and again and again are now upset that they have been described as having gone “mad borrowing” by Taoiseach Enda Kenny. Truth hurts! – Yours, etc,
KEITH NOLAN,
Caldragh,
Carrick-on-Shannon,
Co Leitrim.
Paying Anglo bondholders
Sir, – In seeking to justify payment to the Anglo Irish Bank bondholders, Taoiseach Enda Kenny stated : “The alternative would be catastrophic, given what has happened in Greece where 100,000 public servants have been let go, public sector salaries have been drastically reduced and services decimated” (Dáil Report, January 26th)
The Greek problem is a very high level of public debt, which cannot now be paid off because the economy has been wrecked by savage austerity measures imposed at the behest of the Troika. But whatever mistakes the Greek authorities have made, they have not assumed responsibility for the debts of a private bank.
To seek to justify the Anglo payments by reference to the Greek situation is complete nonsense. Which raises the question whether there are any valid reasons for the payments. – Yours, etc,
PADRAIC CRADOCK,
Galatsi,
(Attica),
Greece.
Dealing with binge-drinking
Sir, – Those advocating minimum alcohol pricing are mostly the middle-aged and middle-class, who do not really care about an increase of a few euro on their weekly bottle of Cabernet Sauvignon.
Minimum pricing has the most effect on those least able pay like the unemployed, students and people on low incomes; who are as entitled as anyone else to enjoy a few drinks at the end of the week.
In Spain and Italy you can pick up a bottle of wine for two euros and they don’t have a problem with binge drinking. Róisín Shortall has taken the cultural problem of binge drinking in Ireland, which I have no doubt won’t be overly influenced by pricing, and turned it into a class issue. – Yours, etc,
JONATHAN ARLOW,
Roselawn Road,
Castleknock,
Dublin 15.
A pardon for Irish soldiers
Sir, – Tommy Graham, editor of History Ireland(January 27th), challenges Minister for Defence Alan Shatter’s assertion that “in the context of the Holocaust , Irish neutrality was a principle of moral bankruptcy”, on the grounds that the Allies fought the war not to end the Holocaust but to defeat the Axis powers militarily.
The Allies also fought to liberate Europe from German occupation and to end the Nazi regime of terror. That the Nazis were engaged in large-scale atrocities against civilian populations, including murdering many Jews, was well-known during the war. That is why the Allies were publicly committed to the trial of Nazi war criminals – a goal achieved at Nuremburg in 1946 – trials that Éamon de Valera was opposed to.
Mr Graham is also incorrect to state that neutrality was the favoured policy of every state at the time. All the member states of the British Commonwealth, except Ireland, declared war on Germany voluntarily in 1939. Later in the war many other states chose to join the Allied coalition, but not de Valera’s Ireland. While the United States was neutral until it was attacked by Japan on December 7th, 1941, by that time it was supporting Britain with virtually all the means at its disposal short of war. That is why Hitler declared war on the United States on December 11th, 1941.
The 5,000 Irish Army deserters who joined the British forces during the war were part of a 70,000-strong contingent of Irish citizens who fought with the Allies to defend not just Britain but Ireland from Nazi conquest and occupation. A pardon for the deserters is the least the current Government can do in recognition of this magnificent Irish contribution to the Allied cause. – Yours, etc,
Prof GEOFFREY ROBERTS,
School of History,
University College Cork.
If you don’t have a TV . . .
Sir, – T Gerard Bennett (January 24th) is unfair to RTÉ Television regarding the continuing commitment to Irish content. Referring to programmes such as EastEnderson the RTÉ Player, he suggests that overseas acquired programmes are typical of RTÉ fare. In fact, the majority of the programmes offered on the RTÉ Player are home-produced Irish programmes. On any one of the three evenings weekly when EastEndersgoes out on RTÉ One, it is with rare exceptions the only non-Irish programme offered.
Recession has severely hit RTÉ’s budgets but the commitment to Irish programmes remains, and is appreciated by the public: in 2011 all but three of the Top 50 most popular programmes watched in Ireland were on RTÉ, and of those 47 only two were not Irish-made. All broadcasters mix original home-produced programming, which is expensive, with a selection of acquired programmes, balancing both the budgets and the range of content.
Mr Bennett is right that most television content in Ireland is still viewed on home television sets, but this is rapidly evolving. Streams on the RTÉ Player rose 45 per cent in the past year, to almost 32 million; half a million unique browsers each month. More than 1.5 million RTÉ mobile and tablet apps have been downloaded. The RTÉ commitment is that the public should have access to publicly-resourced content when and how the public demands. The demand clearly is there.
The proposal from the Minister comes in the light of this evolution in technology and public viewing habits. Other countries have renewed their commitment to public media, while shifting the sourcing of the revenue which supports it – or in Ireland’s case part-supports it – away from simply ownership of a TV set. RTÉ does not set Government policy but can contribute to the debate around this, as of course will others. While that happens, our commitment is to turn the available resources into as much Irish content as possible. – Yours, etc,
KEVIN DAWSON,
Head of Corporate Communications,
RTÉ,
Dublin 4.
Beethoven’s shopping list
Sir, – No mention of Antonín Dvorák! Must we discard the Chopin Liszt after leaving the Czech out? – Yours, etc,
SENAN MOLONY,
Chesterfield Grove, Dublin 15.
Sir, – Looking Bach on the letters on Beethoven’s Chopin Liszt, I found them, to be Franck, very entertaining. They all had a good Pärt. Some of the composers were outstanding in their own Field, no Haydn their light.
You, dear Sir, could bring the work to a finale by awarding a prize for the best opus. Janácek in the post? Anyway I’m Orff. I am very Bizet with Debussy tasks so I am not Gounod write another note. – Yours, etc,
CAMILLA FOX,
Griffinstown,
Kinnegad, Co Westmeath.
Sir. – A sorbet for your Beethoven punfest . . . 4’33”. – Yours, etc,
BRENDAN TREACY,
Drumree, Co Meath.
Sir, – Punning can become violin. Ponchielli Beet-hoven on the Bach with a Handel and claimed Vittorio in the Field. – Yours, etc,
GEARÓID TIMONEY,
Grange Road,
Rathfarnham, Dublin 16.
Sir, – Tallis this, I’m a Schumann most of your readers Allegri that this Messiaen has gone Farrar enough. I refer, of Carse, to those letter-writers and their Palestrina dream up puns that, by now, are, in Pärt, obviously Borodin from other letters, Scriabin the barrel and just pure Scheidt. I can’t Handel any Moore; in fact Arne I Orff to Haydn the Tavener for some decent Bartok and to Glinka Glass of Meyerbeer. Gluck. – Yours, etc,
NIGEL MOONEY,
Ballydonnell,
Avoca, Co Wicklow.
Sir, – I hope these musically X-rated puns are censored more carefully in the future. My daughter is A Minor. – Yours, etc,
EOIN KEEHAN,
Ballisk Court,
Donabate,
Co Dublin.
History of Ireland in 100 Questions
A chara, – Some suggested additions to Frank McNally’s “History of Ireland in 100 Questions” (January 26th). 101. Did you leave the emersion on? 102. What time are you servin’ ’til? 103. What kept you? 104. Was there anyone on the Late-Latelast night? 105. For what died the sons of Roisín? 106. O wise men, Riddle me this: what if the dream comes true? 107. Salt and vinegar? 108. What are ye like? 109. What was your one Jean Byrne (who does the weather) wearin’ last night? 110. Do you think he’ll (Stephen Cluxton) put it over the bar? – Is mise,
DONAL EVOY,
Glen Lawn Drive,
Cabinteely, Dublin 18.
Irish Independent:
Have the troika-infested waters resulted in Enda Kenny developing the memory of a goldfish? A mere seven weeks since his state of the nation address, where the Irish people were told the financial crisis was not their fault, an international audience of economists at Davos is told that Ireland’s problems are a result of “people going mad with borrowing”.
Mr Kenny’s contradictory explanations of Ireland’s financial travails at home and abroad represent a cynical strategy to extol domestic and European audiences in order to maintain popularity on both fronts. We elect government to govern and regulators are appointed to regulate.
Above all else it was both executive and financial oversight that resulted in the mess Ireland now finds itself in. The failure to identify the primary culprits for Ireland’s woes to an international audience at Davos and instead to suggest the Irish ‘people’ bear a collective responsibility is a despicable public betrayal of the Irish nation. In the words of Robert Burns: “Such a parcel of rogues in a nation.”
Dr Peter McGuirk
Ballsbridge, Dublin 4
• As an ordinary citizen, working in an ordinary job and struggling to provide for my family, I was utterly dismayed to hear Mr Kenny’s commentary in Davos.
Hundreds of thousands of Ireland’s citizens did not benefit from the Celtic Tiger, nor did I engage in reckless borrowing or speculation; rather, I had to endure rampant inflation without benefit.
I listened to Mr Kenny’s state of the nation address and thought that at least he understood the plight of the ordinary citizen who he was elected to represent. How gullible was I?
“It’s not your fault,” has morphed into: “It’s totally your fault.”
How could he betray citizens in such fashion in front of an international audience? Maybe it is not possible to achieve debt writedown, but at the very least I expect my Taoiseach to show fortitude and backbone and stand up for his citizens.
A man of substance would have railed against the utter injustice of the situation we find ourselves in, paying back bonds of a private bankrupt bank now under criminal investigation, having first highlighted the role of Europe in fuelling the credit bubble and making it crystal clear the Irish taxpayer saved the European banking system from meltdown by shouldering the enormous burden of this private debt.
All I can really say is: shame on you, Taoiseach. You have betrayed your people and totally abdicated your responsibility. You may dismiss me as a crank but I assure you I am an ordinary citizen, non-political, but who voted for Fine Gael in 2011. I now find myself totally disillusioned.
Daniel Casey
Address with editor
• For the best part of a year now, I’ve been defending the Government’s austerity plans at the dinner table, because I see them as a necessary evil. I’ve gone so far as to offer the opinion that I did benefit indirectly from the Celtic Tiger economy, because the taxes raised helped to build and improve infrastructure, schools and hospitals, and reduce personal taxation.
Like many people, I did not engage in wild, credit-funded spending. I cut my cloth, so to speak, and lived sensibly. I refused to be drawn into the ‘over-priced second home on an easily obtained mortgage’ con-trick and I didn’t upgrade the family car every two years.
So, why the hell has Mr Kenny accused me and those like me of ruining the country? Not only that, he says it on the world stage in Davos. Well, I was never going there for my holidays anyway, so I won’t have to worry about being pointed at in the street and hearing: “He’s one of those spendthrift Irish, I bet we’re funding his holidays.”
While I still understand the need for austerity, I feel let down by the man who is supposed to be showing leadership and giving encouragement to the people who must suffer these hardships — people like me, who voted this Government in so we might be able to restore our country and our pride.
I really don’t know what else to say.
Andrew Callaghan
Artane, Dublin 5
• Excuse me, Mr Kenny. I never borrowed a cent during the boom, I live in a modest house, drive a small car and have not had a holiday in years because I could never afford it on my meagre wages.
Now, you have decided that I am also to blame for the state of the country . . . are you for real?
Another classic case of those who are totally cut off from the realities of day-to-day life for ordinary people in Ireland.
And, to add insult to injury, I am being made to pay for the sins of others.
You have some cheek — and all this said at the World Economic Forum, where the wealthiest of the planet meet every year to drink fine wine and eat good food.
“Let them eat cake” comes to mind.
Michael Kelly
Dublin 15
• Mr Kenny has told the World Economic Forum how we, the ordinary people, lived it up during the Celtic Tiger years. Has he forgotten, or was he not aware, that in May 2006, the Central Statistics Office stated that 741,000, or about 38pc of the workforce, were employed in the low-wage sector of the economy? This figure did not take into account those working in the black economy.
Simon O’Donnell
Rathmines, Dublin 6
Hey, steady on now, this abuse of Enda the eternally young leader has to stop.
So what if he says one thing to an Irish audience and another to the Davos set? That’s political life and we should be used to it by now. Any man that can keep the three balls that are Germany/France/UK in the air, with the odd flick for the US, is a fair man.
Enda, to use a word abused by many in this nation, is a survivor. Taken from school as a young, fair-haired boy, he was forced to work in a grim, grey old building full of fat old men who wore pinstripe suits, smoked cigars and drank whiskey. Listening to eternal spoof, sham and cod acting, Enda wore it well. Never put on a pound, had the poster boy image and played like a hard-working forward.
If Charlie Haughey won the 1987 Tour De France, Enda bettered him by bringing the whole damn caboodle to this little nation — he nailed his sporting and political credentials with that coup.
So what if he didn’t go to last year’s Connacht final in Roscommon? A man who has rubbed shoulders with the best boxers, athletes and sportsmen in the world is entitled to miss the small potatoes of local rivalry. That a protest over a partial closure of hospital services took place on the same day was entirely coincidental.
Whilst Enda found the elixir of eternal youth, he seems still beguiled by older-looking men. Big Phil and Michael Noonan are his bodyguards, who do the … let’s call it, the not-so-nice stuff.
That leaves Enda free to give Angela a peck on the cheek, throw a friendly shape at Mr Sarkozy, swap notes with Mr Obama and look sombre with the queen. Oh, I nearly forgot: and put in a word for Mr Cameron, who nearly shagged the whole EU thingy by actually standing up for his own nation.
So, folks, at this stage it is actually irrelevant what he says, who he says it to or where it’s said. We know the truth. Big boys lose money playing Monopoly; little guys sweep the floor.
By the way, the Tour De France in 1998 was known as the Tour Du Dopage. Was it an omen as we set sail on the SS Celtic Tiger?
John Cuffe
Meath
The suggestion that Ireland carries shame for the Holocaust is as daft as blaming the nation for the Cambodian genocide of Pol Pot. The British and the allies did not go to war to bring an end to the Holocaust. The “Endlosung der Judenfrage” or Final Solution was only initiated in 1942 long after the war started. The great powers stood idle and none were ‘sabre rattling’ over the persecution of Jews all through the 1930s in Germany.
When war was declared it was not declared for the protection of the Jews, nor did the plight of the Jews even merit consideration in any allied military strategy.
Ireland could not take refugees because of the severe economic damage inflicted on the country by the Anglo Irish trade war that only ended in 1938, but from which recovery took decades. There were no jobs in Ireland, only abject poverty.
On the other hand, Britain, a very wealthy country and desperate for manpower, could afford to take people in. This fact is further borne out by the hundreds of thousands of Irish people who were forced to emigrate to Britain after the war. Britain, even though it was bust, could always rely on massive amounts of American money, which Ireland could not; nor was any funding or political encouragement offered to the country to help it to accommodate Jewish or other refugees.
Meanwhile, on the subject of an amnesty for the Irish Army deserters, one major question remains: if the British had carried out Churchill’s threat and invaded Ireland during World War Two, would these men have shot and killed their former colleagues, neighbours, friends and countrymen? I am not involving myself in the argument for or against the amnesty. I can only state the obvious: that decisions based on faulty interpretations of history are faulty decisions.
Eugene Jordan
Barna, Co Galway
I hope we sent a thank-you card with the cheque to the bondholders.
The cheap money they loaned us enabled many landowners to sell land at high prices and developers to build and sell homes and commercial properties to those of us who decided to buy them.
It enabled bank shareholders pay capital gains and income tax on their profits.
The bondholders also helped those who, for years, demanded their own homes on Joe Duffy’s ‘Liveline’ and other shows; and helped parents to get money they could loan to their children as deposits.
It also enabled the government to collect almost 50pc in various forms of taxation from all those who chose to buy these properties and 20pc in Capital Gains Tax from those who sold the land.
They also collected 12.5pc in Corporation Tax from the developers and construction-related businesses.
The ready loans also facilitated the collection of massive amounts of VAT at 21pc from retail businesses and VRT and fuel taxes on booming car sales and honeymoons in the Seychelles.
If the bonds had been expensive, our govern-ment couldn’t have done all this.
It’s amazing that so many wish to blame them for the cheap money and not pay them back. Some believe there will be no future consequences for such action.
We are an ungrateful lot.
The problem then — and it still remains so — is how the government managed to run up an annual spending budget of €55bn in such a short period of time.
I like to call it ‘bribing us with our future income.’
The record shows that all political parties outbid each other with ‘our own money’ and profited from this with electoral support.
The opposition is still doing it in its promises to “cut spending less and over a longer time period” than this Government and — best of all — the clarion calls to “tax the rich” and protest on the streets.
This Government is also doing it by dragging out the cuts while still borrowing almost €18bn per year.
We should write “thanks big fella” on the card and follow it up with a thank-you call from a public phone — if we can find one.
Liam Treacy
Phepotstown House
Kilcock, Co Meath
Allow me to belatedly thank all those Irish Army personnel who stood by Ireland during World War Two and stayed true to their oath of allegiance, at a time when Europe was engulfed in terrible war, with the added danger of a British invasion of Ireland to secure the treaty ports.
Winston Churchill in his victory speech in 1945 said these men showed tremendous loyalty, honour and valour.
Despite the clamour for pardons, apologies and memorials for those who deserted their posts and left Ireland unguarded, there are still many who value the unselfish patriotic endeavours in defending Irish sovereignty and neutrality during those dark years.
Those soldiers who didn’t desert Ireland in her hour of danger can hold their heads high despite the unrelenting campaign to undervalue their roles. Thank you.
Tom Cooper
Dublin 16
I wish to encourage actor Liam Neeson not to renounce his Catholic faith to become a Muslim.
In his book, ‘The Great Christian Heresies’, Hilaire Belloc classifies Islam as a Christian heresy. The foundation of Mohammed’s teaching is Catholicism, which he took and simplified to suit his own personal convictions.
His central heresy is a full denial of the Incarnation. He taught that our Lord was merely a prophet; a man like other men.
The Mohammedan movement was essentially a ‘Reformation’, and we can discover numerous affinities between Islam and Protestant Reformers on images, on the Mass, on celibacy etc.
This radical, individualistic, decentralisation of truth, when followed to its logical conclusion, culminates in moral relativism — the belief that all religions are equally valid.
This is simply not a rational belief. It is contradiction, for example, to claim that God is, at once, both a Personal Being (as Catholics hold) and a non-personal entity (as the Buddhists claim).
At the heart of Mr Neeson’s confusion, I would suggest, is the desire to want to measure the truth of his Catholic faith by modern society’s individualistic standards.
Such people mistakenly believe that divine Revelation must adapt itself to the current mentality in order to be credible, instead of the current mentality converting in the light that comes to us from on high.
Paul Kokoski
Ontario, Canada
Well I must be off
best wishes John
